Diabetics are usually classified as having insulin dependent diabetes mellitus or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Diabetic patients exhibit hyperglycemia in the early stages of the disease but in later stages exhibit large vessel disease, microvascular disease, neuropathy, nephropathy, cataracts, ketoacidosis and diverse symptoms that are caused by these complications. The general treatment for diabetes is the use of insulin or synthetic oral hypoglycemic agents to control the hyperglycemia which is universally observed in diabetics. Even when blood glucose levels are reduced by insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents, over a period of time the complications of diabetes tend to occur in almost all patients in one form or another.
The present invention is concerned with the new use of a pharmacological agent which when administered to a diabetic will prevent, reverse or act as a palliative for the complications of diabetes mellitus. The pharmacological agents which are useful for this purpose are arginine or an arginine derivative which are administered in effective amounts before the complications of diabetes are observed.
In addition the applicant has discovered that the administration of arginine or an arginine derivative will inhibit the Maillard reaction in vivo. The Maillard reaction is the non-enzymatic glycation of proteins which results in the production of glycated proteins. The literature has many references to studies which have found elevated levels of glycated proteins in diabetes mellitus. The inhibition of the Maillard reaction is desirable because it has been described in the literature as the biochemical pathway that is responsible for the sequelae of long standing diabetes and is associated with aging.
Therefore, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a novel method for the prevention of the complications of diabetes mellitus.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a novel method for the palliation of the complications of diabetes mellitus which will reduce the severity of the complications of diabetes mellitus.
It is also an object of this invention to provide novel method for modifying the effects of aging by administering a pharmacological agent which will inhibit the Maillard reaction in vivo.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from a review of the appended specification.